Benjamin Hak-Fung Chiao is a PhD student in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.His advisor is Jeffrey MacKie-Mason.

He is interested in the economics of information technology, and experimental method. His specialties are open-content economics, and economic solutions to spam. More specifically, he has written papers on open source and communism, non-price coordination experiments and optimal liability rules in open-content production, standard-setting organizations, patent pools, and using uncensored communication channels to curbing spam.

He has involved actively in the establishment of two new behavioral labs while serving as
1. Visiting Scholar at the Center for Experimental Business Research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School
2. Research Scientist/Director of Operations at the Center for Experimental Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences & Department of Economics at New York University

His recent publications include:

Journal Articles

1. Benjamin Chiao, Josh Lerner, and Jean Tirole, "The Rules of Standard Setting Organizations: An Empirical Study". Forthcoming in RAND Journal of Economics. (Earlier versions appeared in: Harvard Negotiation, Organizations and Markets (NOM) Research Paper No 05-05. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No 11156.)

Conference Proceedings

2. Benjamin Chiao, "An Economic Theory of Free and Open Source Software: A Tour from Lighthouse to Chinese-Style Socialism", Proceedings of the International Conference on Open Source 2003. The latest version is distributed as a working paper at the MIT Free/Open Source Research Community.

3. Benjamin Chiao, "Torts in Open Innovation: Liability Indemnification through Patent Pools". May, 2006. Academy of Management Open Source Software Research Development Workshop.

4. Benjamin Chiao and Jeffrey MacKie-Mason (2006). "Using Uncensored Communication Channels to Divert Spam Traffic". Proceedings of the 34th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy. Awarded the NET Institute grant. NET Institute Working Paper No. 06-20.

5. Benjamin Chiao, "An Experimental Study of Open Innovation using MASTERMIND", under revision for resubmission to Management Science. Presented at the Economic Science Association's November 2004 meeting in Tuscon, AZ, and January 2006 Meeting in Hong Kong. Screenshots and paper. Presentation slides can be downloaded here. Working paper at the MIT Free/Open Source Research Community. Awarded the Rackham Discretionary Fund.